A HISTORY OF ALASKA POPULATION SETTLEMENT Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development April 2013 A HISTORY OF ALASKA POPULATION SETTLEMENT Prepared by: ERIC SANDBERG, Research Analyst Contributors: EDDIE HUNSINGER, State Demographer SARA WHITNEY, Editor Research and Analysis SecƟ on, Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of AdministraƟ ve Services laborstats.alaska.gov On the cover: Pioneers on the trail at Chilkoot Pass during the Klondike Gold Rush, 1898. Photo courtesy of Alaska State Library Historical Collec ons, Winter and Pond. Table of Contents The First Alaskans . 4 Russian America . 6 Early American Alaska . 8 Gold Rush Era . 9 Interwar Period. .10 World War II and the Cold War Militariza on . .12 North Slope Crude and the Oil Boom and Bust . .13 Alaska Since 1990 . .14 Summary . .18 References. .19 A HISTORY OF ALASKA POPULATION SETTLEMENT 3 laska has the longest history of human habita on and se lement of any place Many Na ve groups lived semi- in the Americas. Throughout that his- nomadic lifestyles, staying in one tory, the state’s se lement has been spot over the winter and traveling Ashaped primarily by geography, fur, fi sh, gold, railroads, oil, war, and military strategy. great distances to hunt and fi sh in summer. These factors directly infl uenced the se lement pa erns of Alaska and how popula on centers waxed and waned over me. Examples are dot- Strait, the 53 mile-wide channel that separates ted throughout history, from the growth and the two con nents, was an open plain crossable decline of gold rush boomtowns like Nome and on foot during the Ice Age. The exact nature of Skagway to the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline bringing this migra on has been a controversial scholarly in the oil economy with its price-based fl uctua- debate, however. Hypotheses have diff ered on ons. the route taken, whether over land through the Bering Land Bridge or by sea through the Aleu- Presen ng a concise history of Alaska’s se le- an Islands. ment and its es to popula on sta s cs is not easy — the topic is one that could fi ll several Whether there was one large migra on or three books, and each era is marked by widely diff er- migra ons at diff erent me periods is also a mat- ent levels of data availability. Many important ter of con nuing debate and research. One line historical moments are not evident in popula- of thinking focuses on one migra on from Asia on numbers, and some large changes cannot from which all indigenous peoples of the Ameri- be readily explained. S ll, looking at Alaska his- cas descend. Another is that several waves of tory through popula on se lement numbers migra ons spanned thousands of years, with dif- provides context for much of the state’s trans- ferent groups within Alaska arriving at diff erent forma on. mes. According to this hypothesis, the ances- tors of Athabascans and Tlingit groups arrived in Tracing Alaska’s se lement begins with the Alaska in an earlier migra on than the ancestors indigenous peoples before contact with Europe- of Aleuts and Eskimos. (Vadja) ans, through Russian America and the U.S. Pur- chase, followed by the Gold Rush, World War II, Surveying the landscape of Alaska before Euro- the Cold War, the oil boom and bust, and to the pean contact reveals se lement not altogether modern day. diff erent from the larger Alaska Na ve regions of the state today. Many of the past villages The popula on data come from several sourc- were in coastal regions or along the great riv- es, primarily U.S. Census records that have ers of the interior of Alaska. Many groups lived been released every 10 years since 1880 for semi-nomadic lifestyles, staying in one spot Alaska. Early censuses also included overviews over the winter and traveling great distances to of all counts conducted during the Russian hunt and fi sh in summer. America me period. Several books and aca- demic publica ons, listed at the end, provided UAA anthropology professor Steve Langdon es- es mates and historical narra ve. Finally, all mates that approximately 80,000 people lived rounded popula on numbers are approxi- in Alaska by the me of contact with Europeans, mate. which began in the mid-1700s. (See Figure 1.) This popula on number was not reached again THE FIRST ALASKANS un l World War II. All numbers presented in this sec on are Lang- nthropologists have long surmised that the don’s es mated values at the point of contact Aroute of human migra on from Asia into with Europeans (defi ned as the fi rst signifi cant North America came through Alaska. The Bering direct interac on) that he published in his 4 A HISTORY OF ALASKA POPULATION SETTLEMENT Figure 1: Map of diff erent Na ve groups with pre-contact popula ons (Langdon) book The NaƟ ve People of Alaska, numbers before contact. that are used by the Alaska Na ve Heritage Center in Anchorage. Along the Aleu an Islands, west of Port Moller, lived the Unangan people. Commonly referred Prior to fi rst contact, 15,000 people lived in to by their Russian name “Aleut,” they likely Southeast, the realm of the Tlingit. The largest numbered between 15,000 and 18,000 for the congrega ons resided near the S kine River en re island chain. According to Langdon, Un- close to Wrangell and the Chilkat River near angan numbers are more diffi cult to es mate Haines, both close to routes through the moun- because they were the fi rst to come into con- tains. In addi on to the Tlingit, around 1,800 tact with Europeans and suff ered overwhelm- Haida lived on the southern half of Prince of ing popula on loss a erward. Wales Island. Haida were based primarily in modern-day Bri sh Columbia, but their range North of the Aleu ans, the Yupik people occu- crossed into Alaska. pied the lower regions and deltas of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, plus the area around Around the Gulf of Alaska, the Alu iq were the Bristol Bay. This, the most populous Alaska Na- dominant group. Around 2,000 Alu iq lived in ve area of the state today, had around 19,500 the Prince William Sound area and an addi on- Yupiit at fi rst contact. Of this total, most — al 1,500 resided along the coastal Kenai Penin- 13,500 — lived in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta sula and Alaska Peninsula. However, the center region and on Nunivak Island. Another 3,000 of Alu iq culture was Kodiak Island, home to lived around Bristol Bay. The remaining groups between 12,000 and 15,000 people. One of the were either along Norton Sound (1,500) or on largest se lement areas was the Karluk River St. Lawrence Island (1,500). A large village near on the western side of Kodiak Island. This salm- the site of Gambell was likely home to 500-600 on-rich river likely had around 1,800 people liv- residents. ing nearby, making it among the most populous community or set of communi es in Alaska Inupiat along the northern coastal regions were A HISTORY OF ALASKA POPULATION SETTLEMENT 5 among the last groups to encounter Europeans. Coastal villages with abundant resources had a Russia was in control of the en re more sta onary year-round popula on, while landmass that became Alaska, but inland Inupiat were nomadic. Large concentra- ons of people lived in strategic coastal spots in truth their direct control varied such as modern-day Wales, Point Hope, and from heavy-handed to nonexistent. Barrow. The Kotzebue Sound region had the largest popula on at 4,000. Nearly 3,500 peo- ple lived up along the North Slope, 1,500 on the areas, saw li le if any Russian presence. Seward Peninsula, and 1,000 on the off shore Bering Strait islands. While the Russians did not extensively se le Alaska, their coming had a devasta ng eff ect The inland Athabascan people lived mostly on the indigenous popula on. Disease brought along the rivers of the interior. Totaling 11,000 from Europe ravaged the local popula on. people, many Athabascan groups moved Many epidemics swept through during the around to several fi shing and hun ng camps Russian America period, including dysentery, per year in search of food. The Dena’ina group infl uenza, typhoid, whooping cough, and around Cook Inlet numbered 3,000 people, measles. The most deadly epidemic was the and the Ahtna group in the Copper River valley smallpox outbreak from 1835 to 1840, which numbered 1,000. Most other Athabascans lived struck hardest in Southeast Alaska and Ko- along the Yukon/Kuskokwim/Tanana river wa- diak. Few medical personnel were sta oned in tersheds. The groups closer to the modern-day the colony and vaccines were in short supply, boundary with Canada numbered 2,200, while worsening the crisis. (Gibson) the groups farther downriver numbered 4,800. The total popula on loss of Alaska Na ves from RUSSIAN AMERICA all causes during the Russian America period is unknown. Es mates are 80 percent of the Aleut and Koniag (Kodiak) popula ons and 50 percent he fi rst foray of Europeans into Alaska was of the Chugach (Prince William Sound), Tlingit, Tthe voyage of Danish explorer Vitus Bering, Haida, and Dena’ina popula ons. (Langdon) who reached Alaska in 1741 on behalf of the tsar of Russia. Soon other European na ons During the en re period of Russian coloniza on, such as Spain and Great Britain began sending there was no a empt at a complete census, for vessels through Alaska’s coastal waters, but it a couple of reasons.